Daily Yellowstone journal., 1887-04-08
WHERE AND HOW JET IS FOUND.
Claims Of the whitby People In Regard
In IT. formation

Claims Of the whitby People In Regard
to Its Formation.
Jet is q shining black substance which
is found in seams dissociated from other
black minerals. and not in the coal regions
of England, but in others. notably near
Whitby. in Yorkshire. II occurs also in
Saxony and in the amber districts on the
Prussian shores of the Baltic. The scien-
fists maintain that il is a variety of coal,
but the Whitby folks adduce many cir
cumstanceS that go TO prove that il must
have been at some time in a gummy or
semi-liquid state quite unlike coal from
~ligneous sources. Bits of vegetable sub
stances are often found imbedded in il,
also flies wings and other small articles,
which favor the Wbitby theory.
The stratum called jet rock is found
mostly at Whitby, in a sort of shale,
which, when distilled, yields ten gallons
of oil u ton. The nature of the connec-
ton between this oil and jet cannot now
be determined, though some connection
evidently existed in past times. There Is
hard JET and soft jet, the former being
the best. Ii occurs in detached pieces,
ranging in size from a domino up TO those
many pounds in weight. The largest
piece ever found wa six feet long, five
inches wide and M and a half inches
thick. The British museum refused to
give ten Suineas for il. hut a dealer paid
fifteen for it and cut it up into crises Of
unusual size. How long jet, or black
amber, as it was formerly called, has
been worked at Whitby is not known,
but certainly for many centuries.
In a tumulus or barrow near the town
the skeleton of a lady was found, sup
posed 10 belong to the ancient British
days. before the date of the Danish in
v~asions, and with il were earrings Of jet
two inches long by a quarter of an inch
thick. They were heart shaped, with a
hole in the upper part for the wire. JET
possesses considerable electric qualities
like amber. Ii was made into beads and
rosaries in the middle ages by the monks.
As a trade il had not much activity till
the beginning of the present century.
The Spaniards made beads and rosaries OF
the soft kind Of jet, and when English
ladies began 10 wear il i'm mourning the
Whitby industry began to flourish. Al
first the workers used only knives and
files, but Matthew Hill discovered a
method Of turning this brittle sub.
stance in a lathe. The largest find
ever made was forty years ago, at North
Bats. a spot in the neighborhood
of Whitby. and consisted of $40 pieces Of
stones, valued at s1,250. The jet i
picked up on the shore, at the foot of the
cliffs, hut this is of an inferior quality,
A dangerous mode Of obtaining il is to
cut down the face of the cliff, until a JET
seam is reached. Ii is also tunneled fol
twenty miles inland. ZEAL Bilsdale. in the
Cleveland hills. The men rent the work
ings. as in the copper and tin mines Of
Cornwall. and they may work a month
without coming across a bit Of the
precious stuff. The prices for the best
hard jet is three shillings a pound; fol
the soft, one shilling. The Whitby
variety is the finest known, as it il
tougher and more elastic than any other
and admits of a higher polish. Many
articles sold in the shops as Whitby je
are derived from the Pyrenees, and ar,
Liable to break through sudden heat OF
cold which is due to a slight per cent. o
sulphur in the Spanish variety.